City of Steamboat launches new website

Anne Small, director of general services for Steamboat Springs, said if she had only one word to describe the city of Steamboat Springs’ new website that launched last week, she would call it "intuitive."

“And it’s much more easy to navigate than it has been before,” she said, noting the new drop-down menus and redesign of the main page, which includes a rolling slideshow with images of Steamboat Springs. “We just feel it has a fresher look.”

She said city officials signed off on the redesign with the goal of making government more transparent.

Users now can create an account on the website and sign up to receive notifications for such things as trail closures, emergencies and requests for proposals, among other things. They also can search through a document database by city department.

The city contracted with CivicPlus, a company based in Manhattan, Kan., that specializes in building websites for municipalities. Small said the city paid $30,000 for the new website and will pay $5,000 annually to have it hosted and maintained.

“We just felt that in order to provide information to the public in a very cohesive manner, we needed a new website,” she said. “It already feels like it’s paying for itself.”

Small said the city last modified its website about a year and a half ago, but it has been seven to eight years since it last underwent a major redesign.

Meanwhile, Routt County also is preparing to launch a new website with CivicPlus. County Manager Tom Sullivan said the new site will go live by Aug. 31.

“The look and feel will be similar to what the city has done,” he said.

Sullivan said the county is paying the same price for the website as the city did, and the redesign will be the county’s first in about 11 years.